Serving Platter Madness

[dizzy]

I've become somewhat annoyed by this, and if you've ever played some 10 to 20 sim houses, you'll probably know what I'm talking about right away. In TS1, the server didn't bother going through the motions of serving food. If you wanted food, you served yourself. No muss, no fuss.

I realize that serving food is a bit more realistic and it does make the whole process a bit more efficient, but that's only if you have either low traffic situations and/or a preference for small tables rather than the larger ones (which use up more space).

I'd also like to mention that this related hack doesn't work:

http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=24048

(Squinge seems to have a knack for non-awesome hacks.)

[ElfPuddle]

Yes, it's more realistic, but I hate how often I end up with unused served food.
As much as I really wanted to vote for bananas...."no" gets the vote.

[Li'l Brudder]

Much like ElfPuddle,

I really wanted to vote for no...."bananas" gets the vote.

But really, No is the best answer.  Food now, damn it!  Feed the Childrens!

[Hegelian]

Yes, it's more realistic, but I hate how often I end up with unused served food.

This is why we have Inventory. Stashing surplus food reduces the grocery bill and allows children and adult sims with low cooking skills to eat well (or at all).

[Paperbladder]

The problem with the detection algorithm is that it just goes by the number of Sims in the house, ignoring if they are hungry or not.  It'd be slightly better if it only took into account close, controllable, or hungry sims (these would probably require more checks though).

The less the "AI" does, the better.

[Simsbaby]

The game also serves ghosts if they are out and about, which is really annoying.  I would be happy with at least a fix for this.

[jfade]

This is something I'd really like, especially if it was bundled in with a smart-serve type of hack that takes into account the number of Sims in the house, as well as did some of the other things mentioned in this thread (no serving ghosts for instance) so if anyone made this it would be awesome.

[ElfPuddle]

Yes, it's more realistic, but I hate how often I end up with unused served food.

This is why we have Inventory. Stashing surplus food reduces the grocery bill and allows children and adult sims with low cooking skills to eat well (or at all).

Very true. However, I would rather stick the entire platter in the inventory than each individual plate. The former involves less clicking and I'm lazy.

[RainbowTigress]

I think the food server should place the platter on the counter and serve him/herself if they are hungry.  If they aren't hungry, they should just set it down and leave it for those who are.

[witch]

If you put the romantic candles on the tables, the dinner is not served. Someone here told me this simple fix and I've found it useful.

ETA: Wow 1999 posts - better make sure the next one is meaningful!

[RainbowTigress]

If you put anything on the table, they won't serve the plates.  I like putting the napkin holders from NL, or a small flower vase.  Date roses or TJ's casual romance adjust as a small plant will work too.

[J. M. Pescado]

It helps if you "make many" the food instead. For some reason, in Maxisland, "many" means "one, but put it in the inventory".

[jrd]

Dizzy, I really like what you did with your smart serve mod. I hope you'll get around to updating it one day.
I often let children serve the food since they do not serve, just drop the full platter on a counter.

[cwykes]

The game also serves ghosts if they are out and about, which is really annoying.  I would be happy with at least a fix for this.

Never mind ghosts - they were at least Sims once.  They serve the robots too!  That really, really annoys me!

In TS1, the server didn't bother going through the motions of serving food. If you wanted food, you served yourself. No muss, no fuss.

Well not exactly - you got the annoying logjam around the counter instead.  Remember how every sim in the house tried to take a plate of food from one counter at the same time in your tiny kitchen?  You had to place a counter for them to put the food on very carefully with at least 2 sides free and several exits from the room.

Don't you think whether they serve should depend on personality? 
Slobby, grouchy sims shouldn't serve food, but nice, neat sims should.

The other aspect I think needs fixing is the distance they trek to serve food.  After they've filled the dining room table, the real annoyance is the trek down the garden to serve food for the ghosts and the robots on the table meant for BBQs by the pool.

[Mirelly]

I'm never sure what the hoo-hah is about concerning the price of food. I generally find that my sims have too much money so food wastage ain't a problem. What I'd like to see more would be a "clear all food dishes" option rather have to try to guess which of the six plates won't get cleared or to have to run after the pesky li'l blighters to get them to clear away the soon to be humming with aerial members of the insecta class plates that went uneaten ... and why do they have to put serving plates on the floor when they'll willing trek to Tau Ceti IV on (mindless) impulse power just to deposit a coffee cup on a coffee table (assuming they are not subject to the awesomeness of JMP's mind control)?

PS Come to think of it ... how come a sim can carry six servings, six plates and a serving platter but only five dirty plates. Seems fishy to me ...

[cwykes]

I just don't like wasted food - my mum was a teacher during the war and you just did not waste food.  Some foods were still rationed when I was very young.  Apart from the shortage issues, I think she took it as a personal insult if you didn't eat the food she put so much time and effort into making.  She used to talk about "starving children in Africa" as well.

Getting away from childhood indoctrination, it's the waste of time preparing and buying food that I resent.  If you make a group meal for 2 sims, it should last them 3 meals without them having to spend time cooking and serving again.  Never mind delaying the time until they have to order food and shuffe around the porch and garden for hours trying to greet the delivery man.

[Mirelly]

Geez, cw. It's not real food. Seriously though I've complained before that the serve meal option should ask how many to cook for. My mum grew up in the war and she also hates food wastage and instilled the same values on me. However, leftovers can often be deeply unappealing ... if not a health hazard and I see no reason to inflict that on my sims regardless of the fact that they never, ever get bored.

[jrd]

One of the Seasons previews implied that we will be able to put leftovers back in the fridge for their food value.

[amjoie]

I hope keeping leftovers is automatic, then. I am not sure I want to ride herd on the robot and baby sitters to get them to put the 15th platter of jello, served today alone, back in the fridge. LOL

I have one business run on a meter, that has a buffet table on the lot. Regardless of the "never-ending buffet" always available, the robot still insists on serving each and every logged in guest whenever one guest on the lot gets minorly hungry. The huge waste of food was literally keeping my business in the red.

My solution was to remove the frig. Everyone was forced to eat from the buffet, and suddenly my business started making money hand over fist.

In the latest chat they said the left-over food is "invincible" and I take it that means it doesn't spoil once in the frig. I wonder if, once food is put back in the frig, the next person to take out food must eat the leftovers before making more food ...

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm never sure what the hoo-hah is about concerning the price of food. I generally find that my sims have too much money so food wastage ain't a problem.

Maybe, but I'm incredibly miserly, and also, green buzzing fly-filled plates is unpleasant. Plus I'm a miser and the idea of wasting anything (except other people) causes me physical pain. There's a REASON I have a giant hoard of things I won't throw out, y'know.

I just don't like wasted food - my mum was a teacher during the war and you just did not waste food.  Some foods were still rationed when I was very young.  Apart from the shortage issues, I think she took it as a personal insult if you didn't eat the food she put so much time and effort into making.  She used to talk about "starving children in Africa" as well.

Same. Although my mine didn't talk about starving children in Africa, nor was effort spent on making food. Instead I was told that if we ran out of food because I wasted it, they'd have to kill and eat me. This, combined with the inherited tendencies, has caused me to be the miserly bastard I am today. The only thing I waste is people.

[KellyQ]

Dizzy, I really like what you did with your smart serve mod. I hope you'll get around to updating it one day.
I often let children serve the food since they do not serve, just drop the full platter on a counter.

Ditto. This was my favorite part of the hack, that children were able to cook for themselves. More realistic then the way it's set up in the game. After all, most children can make themselves a sandwich/bowl of cereal/mac & cheese.

[Weaver]

I personally liked the autonomous lock on the fridges that came with smart-serve.

[dizzy]

You had to place a counter for them to put the food on very carefully with at least 2 sides free and several exits from the room.

I still have to do that anyway, so I don't see the point. 

What I've been doing to keep this relatively sane is to seal the kitchen with Autonomy Denying APO, and then whatever happens, happens. It would be nice if the server was a little smarter, but that is a very difficult hack to do (especially if you make it compatible with every EP).

[notveryawesome]

I have a 'no autonomous cooking' hack as well as a 'no servo chores' hack. These alone have saved much food for my sims and much sanity for me. Still, I'd like a smarter food-serving hack, because the current AI for serving and cleaning up meals is a bit stupid, and I agree with what others have mentioned, that there should be checks for how many hungry sims there are on a given lot, and food should only be served to them (not ghosts, servos, maids, and gardeners).

[virgali]

  I'm pretty sure my sim served food with a date bouquet on the table...  I would check on it, only that my pc crashed and I forgot to save so I'm back to square one.

I'll test that in my game when I start playing again... I would like the serving part to be fixed since I think it looks nice when playing my "perfect families". Maybe Dizz would liek to make two versions or give you the option for no serving at all and a fixed version of the serving?

It should only check for hungry sims on a lot. It also annoyes me that the sim who's serving sits down immediately and eat. It's ok if they're cooking for themselves but when serving it's not that useful when if the actual sim isn't hungry or the bar is almost full.

Greets,
Ali